History of Cassette Players

By Contributing Writer ; Updated September 15, 2017

At the peak of the popularity of the turntable in the 1960s a little known medium, the cassette player, was becoming increasingly popular amongst music fans. The cassette player would quickly replace the record player, and 8 track, as the preferred audio medium in the 1970s before being replaced in the public's eye by the CD in the 1990s.

History

Cassette players were designed by the Phillips corporation in 1963 and sold to the public in 1965. They were originally meant to record vocal dictation but later evolved to replace record players in home entertainment systems.

Significance

Cassette players allowed you to in effect "shrink" your music collection as tapes were much smaller in size than records. They also allowed people to record from other tapes, records and the radio which ushered in the age of the "mixed tape."